Touch sensitive displays have gained in popularity over point and click displays. In point and click displays, a cursor or pointer is controlled by a mouse, scroll pad or scroll wheel, whereas in touch sensitive displays, a user interacts with a target interactive item using a finger or fingers or with a tool such as a stylus or other pointing object. The target interactive item may, for example, be an icon, a menu item, a hypertext link, a button or any other target positioned in a display region of the touch sensitive display. Throughout this specification, the term “interactive item” should be broadly interpreted and is used to refer to any target provided by a user interface and which a user may wish to select.
While a mouse, scroll pad or scroll wheel may have several buttons to enable the user to apply different selection modes, such as a “right click” selection mode, with touch sensitive displays there may only be one selection mode available when a user interacts with a target interactive item. Right clicking is a particularly useful function in point and click displays where a short list of options may be displayed in respect of a target interactive item. While some touch sensitive displays enable users to indicate a different intent by pressing on a target interactive item for an extended period of time, this does not replace the usefulness of the right click selection mode as it is a generally slow interaction method.
It would be advantageous to enable a user of a touch-sensitive display to interact with a target interactive item such that more than one selection mode is available.
The preceding discussion of the background to the invention is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgment or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge in the art as at the priority date of the application.